1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to displaying a menu or providing guidance during a displayed image switching operation in an image pickup apparatus or a display control apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image pickup apparatus such as a digital camera, when the image pickup apparatus operates in an image playback mode in which an image is read from a memory card and displayed on a display screen, if an image switching button is operated, the displayed image is switched to a next image. This allows the images stored in the memory card to be displayed sequentially. Hereinafter, this function will be referred to simply as an image switching function. Note that the image is switched by one image at a time in response to pressing the image switching button.
Use of the image switching function in a normal manner allows a user to view and check images on a one-by-one basis, select a desired image, and perform a process such as printing on the selected image.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-052433 discloses an image playback technique in which if an image switching button is kept pressed down for a long time, the operation mode is switched into a thumbnail index display mode in which a plurality of images are displayed in the form of thumbnail images.
However, to find a desired one from a plurality of images, if images are sequentially displayed one by one in a predetermined order, it can be difficult to find the desired image, and thus it can take a long time to finally find the desired image.
Even if a plurality of reduced images are displayed on the display screen in the form of the thumbnail index view as in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-052433, the displayed thumbnail images do not always include a desired image, and thus it may still take a long time to find the desired image.
Some digital cameras have an image jump function that allows a jump from an image being currently displayed to an image included in a specified folder or an image taken on a specified date thereby making it possible to quickly find a desired image. However, all users do not know that the digital camera has the image jump function. For such users who do not that the image jump function is available, the image jump function is useless.